• 11 Breakfast (B)
• 7 Lunch (L)
• 7 Dinner (D)
• 1 Afternoon Tea (AT)

• Luxor: Enjoy listening to stories of village life from local residents, when you visit a family home for a tasting of authentic Egyptian sun bread.

• “Koshari is our national dish, and it never disappoints. Believed to have originated in the 19th century, this vegetarian street food staple is made of rice, pasta, lentils, and chickpeas, topped with delicious fried onions and a spicy tomato-based garlic sauce.”
• “I love to share our Ancient Egyptian civilization and history with our guests and to explain all the details and stories related to Egyptian mythology so our guests can enjoy a very special guided vacation.”
• “The Abu Simbel Temples are utterly unique in scale, architecture, art and history. From one of the most prominent eras of Ancient Egyptian history, these magnificent structures emphasise how persistent and clever ancient Egyptian architects were to carve a mountain to make such incredible tributes for Egyptian deities.”

Discover the remarkably preserved Temple of Hathor at Dendera, dedicated to the goddess associated with music, motherhood and joy. Examine its richly carved columns and a rare depiction of Cleopatra and her son Caesarion.

The temple’s surviving decoration reveals the meeting of Egyptian religious tradition and the later Ptolemaic world. Its detailed ceilings and reliefs make this an especially rewarding place to study ancient imagery up close.

Visit Aswan High Dam and the nearby granite quarries, where the enormous Unfinished Obelisk still lies attached to bedrock. See evidence of the quarrying techniques used to shape monumental stone in antiquity.

The dam transformed the modern Nile and created Lake Nasser; the abandoned obelisk reveals the challenges faced by ancient stoneworkers. Together, the sites present two very different chapters in Egypt’s relationship with the river and its resources.

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Insight Vacations

Explore Karnak Temple with an Egyptologist, walking an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes into the vast Great Hypostyle Hall. Its towering columns preserve the scale and ambition of ancient Thebes.

Built and expanded by successive pharaohs over centuries, Karnak was a major religious centre dedicated chiefly to Amun-Ra. Carved reliefs and monumental gateways offer a close look at how rulers recorded their power in stone.

Visit Luxor Museum to examine ancient artefacts in a setting devoted to the history of Thebes and its surrounding temples and tombs. Its carefully presented collection gives individual objects room to be appreciated.

Look beyond the scale of Egypt’s monuments to the craftsmanship of statues, reliefs and everyday objects. The museum adds human detail to the stories of the pharaohs and the Nile Valley.

Cruise the Nile between Luxor and Aswan, watching riverbanks lined with palms, cultivated fields and villages pass from the deck. The voyage provides a scenic setting for exploring the temples and communities along Egypt’s historic waterway.

For millennia, the Nile sustained settlement, farming and trade in the surrounding desert. Sailing its waters offers a sense of why so many of Egypt’s ancient monuments stand within reach of the river.

Choose an Egyptian cooking demonstration with the onboard chef during your time in Aswan. Watch familiar local ingredients and techniques come together, with an opportunity to ask about the flavours served in Egyptian homes.

This is one of two included Insight Choice activities; travellers select it instead of the captain’s quarters experience. Its hands-on perspective connects the Nile journey with the food traditions of the communities along its banks.

Choose to visit the captain’s quarters aboard your Nile cruise ship and learn how its captain navigates the river. Hear about the practical knowledge involved in sailing a waterway that has connected Egyptian communities for generations.

This is one of two included Insight Choice activities; travellers select it instead of the Egyptian cooking demonstration. The visit offers a behind-the-scenes view of the people and skills that make river travel possible.

Experience an Egyptian dinner and galabeya party aboard your Nile cruise. Learn about the galabeya, a loose-fitting garment traditionally worn in Egypt, as the evening brings fellow travellers together around local dress and food.

More than a routine shipboard meal, this hosted celebration offers a sociable introduction to a recognisable part of Egyptian daily life. Its relaxed atmosphere makes room for conversation and shared cultural discovery.

Travel by motorboat to the Temple of Isis near Aswan and explore its waterside courtyards, columns and carved walls. The island setting gives the sanctuary a striking sense of separation from the bustle of the city.

Dedicated to the goddess Isis, the temple was carefully dismantled and reassembled on higher ground when the original island faced flooding after construction of the Aswan High Dam. Its preservation is itself part of the site’s story.

Step aboard a traditional felucca in Aswan and meet a local sailor who explains how these boats are handled on the Nile. Experience the river from a vessel whose simple form has long been part of its landscape.

Listen to the sailor’s account of navigation techniques and the felucca’s cultural significance. The encounter brings a personal perspective to the working knowledge passed between generations of Nile boatmen.

Meet members of a women-owned co-operative in Aswan and discover how they turn reclaimed and natural materials, including palm and bamboo, into handicrafts. Hear how learning these skills can help local women earn an income.

The organisation provides a supportive space for women from nearby communities while working to reduce waste. Your visit is a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® experience that supports its work and connects craft traditions with greater financial independence.

Enjoy high tea at Aswan’s Old Cataract Hotel as the light softens over the Nile. Pause over tea and refreshments in a setting associated with the city’s long history of river travel.

The historic hotel welcomed notable guests including Agatha Christie and Winston Churchill. Its atmosphere offers a different perspective on Aswan: one shaped by travellers, writers and the enduring appeal of the Nile at sunset.

Return by boat for the Philae Sound and Light Show, where illumination turns the temple’s columns and facades into the setting for stories of Isis, Hathor and the sacred Nile. See the sanctuary take on a different character after dark.

The performance draws on ancient Egyptian mythology and the river’s annual floods, which sustained life along its banks. It is a theatrical encounter with the temple, distinct from the included daytime visit.

Explore Kom Ombo’s double temple, an unusual sanctuary built with paired spaces dedicated to two gods: crocodile-headed Sobek and falcon-headed Horus the Elder. Its riverside position makes the temple a distinctive stop on the Nile.

Look for the symmetry in its design and the reliefs that record religious ceremonies and offerings. The shared layout gives a clear, physical expression to the two cults worshipped here in antiquity.

Visit Luxor Temple in the evening and walk among its monumental columns, courtyards and the surviving pylon of Ramses II. The fading light brings out the scale of a sanctuary that stands close to the modern city.

Built and enlarged by pharaohs over many centuries, the temple was linked to Karnak through ceremonial processions. Its setting reveals how ancient Thebes remains woven into the streets of present-day Luxor.

Discover the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut on Luxor’s west bank with an Egyptologist. See its broad terraces and colonnades rise against the limestone cliffs at Deir el-Bahari.

Hatshepsut ruled as pharaoh during Egypt’s New Kingdom, and her temple celebrated both her reign and her relationship with the gods. Its architecture uses the surrounding cliffs to striking effect, creating one of the west bank’s most recognisable sights.

Explore the Valley of the Kings with an Egyptologist and learn why New Kingdom pharaohs chose this desert valley for their tombs. Visit the burial landscape associated with rulers including Tutankhamun.

Beyond the entrances, tomb chambers preserve scenes and inscriptions connected to beliefs about the afterlife. Your Egyptologist helps interpret the symbolism and explains how the valley became one of Egypt’s most significant archaeological sites.

See the Colossi of Memnon, two immense seated statues that stand on Luxor’s west bank. Pause to take in their scale against the open landscape and the mountains beyond.

The figures once guarded the entrance to the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III, much of which has not survived above ground. Their solitary presence offers a powerful indication of the size of the original complex and the ambitions of its builder.

Visit a family in Geziret Bahirat near Luxor and share traditional Egyptian sun bread while listening to stories of village life. The hosted encounter offers time for conversation away from the region’s grand monuments.

Hear directly from local residents about their community and everyday routines. Tasting bread together makes this a personal introduction to Egyptian hospitality and to the living culture of the Nile Valley.

Ascend to the Citadel of Cairo for sweeping city views, and step inside the Mosque of Muhammad Ali, also known as the Alabaster Mosque. Look up at its domes and take in the detail of its interior.

The hilltop fortress has shaped Cairo’s history for centuries. Built in the 19th century, the mosque is closely associated with Muhammad Ali Pasha, an influential figure in the development of modern Egypt.

Explore the Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza with an Egyptologist, discovering ancient artefacts and treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb. Stand before the towering statue of Ramses II and encounter objects that span thousands of years of Egyptian history.

The museum brings royal possessions, sculpture and archaeological finds together on a remarkable scale. Expert interpretation helps connect the craftsmanship of individual pieces with the beliefs and lives of the people who made them.

Visit ancient Memphis to see its colossal statue of Ramses II and the Great Alabaster Sphinx. These surviving monuments offer a glimpse of a city that once held a central place in Egyptian political and religious life.

Memphis served as an important capital during the Old Kingdom. Although much of the ancient city has disappeared, its monumental sculpture still conveys the artistry and royal authority associated with this historic centre.

Visit the Saqqara necropolis to view the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a landmark in the development of pyramid building. Its distinctive stacked tiers stand apart from the smooth-sided pyramids at Giza.

Designed in the 27th century BC and traditionally credited to Imhotep, the monument was part of a larger royal funerary complex. Seeing it in its desert setting helps explain how Egyptian builders transformed earlier tomb forms into monumental stone architecture.

Explore the Pyramids of Giza with an Egyptologist, come face-to-face with the Great Sphinx and venture inside one of the pyramids. The visit brings you close to the chambers and stonework of Egypt’s most recognisable royal tombs.

Built during the Old Kingdom, the Great Pyramid is the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. Your Egyptologist explains the beliefs about kingship and the afterlife that shaped this extraordinary funerary landscape.

Choose an optional excursion to Abu Simbel to see the rock-cut Great Temple of Ramesses II and the nearby Temple of Hathor beside Lake Nasser. Their monumental facades reveal the scale of royal building in ancient Nubia.

The temples were relocated during the construction of the Aswan High Dam to protect them from rising waters. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; ask your Travel Director for availability and arrangements.

• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star hotel and overnight cruise stays
• Business class coach with extended leg room, cruise travel and select flights